by Dr. Albert Samuels, Professor of Political Science, Southern University

I have read the Meuller Report. I wanted to refrain from opining until I read it for myself. I deliberately turned away from all media coverage because I didn't want my.views contaminated by the pinditocracy. Here are my takes:

1. The Russians systematically interfered and undermined the 2016 elections. That fact cannot be reasonably denied - the Meuller Report documents that fact exhaustively. And while it is clear that the Russians had a clear preference for Donald Trump, it is important to note that they laid the foundation for their disinformation campaign in 2014, long before Donald Trump became a candidate. In other words, their actions were not just about helping Donald Trump; rather, this is what Russia does. And, given their successes in 2016, there is no reason to believe that they won't try again in 2020, or 2022, or 2024. That fact should concern every American.

2. It is an important finding that no Americans willingly conspired in Russia's hacking of the DNC, its social media offensive, or in the release of the stolen emails. It was worth it to the country to find that out.

3. However, it's a pretty low bar to discover that a presidential campaign did not technically violate the law. One would hope that we would have leaders who have some concern for the national interest. Yet, the campaign, by repeatedly showing its willingness to accept help from a foreign adversary, shows how willing they were to put their self interests over those of the nation.

4. The Meuller Report paints a damning portrait, not just of the Trump campaign and administration, but Donald Trump in particular. At no point in this entire saga is this president not obsessed with himself. Trump is incapable of putting any interest above his own - and this foundation is key to understanding everything he does. His willingness to subvert every convention, norm, or institution of our system makes him an existential threat to American democracy. The impeachment mechanism in the Constitution was designed specifically for an individual who threatens to undermine our constitutional order. Donald Trump is that sort of leader that the Framers feared.

5. Donald Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia investigation at every turn. Volume II documents example after example of Trump's attempts to obstruct justice. AG Barr simply lied when he insinuated that Meuller did not have enough evidence to charge obstruction and that the Trump administration cooperated extensively with Meuller's investigation. Trump repeatedly tried to shut down the investigation; when that failed, he tried to narrow its scope; he encouraged his associates to lie to investigators and to the press and he attacked the probe relentlessly in public and in private. It is simply not true that the case for obstruction was not made.

6. Meuller does not indict the president, but it is not because there is not enough evidence. It is clear that he does not believe (or alternatively, does not believe it is a settled question) that a sitting president can be indicted. Thus, he devotes a large part of his report to arguing why the federal obstruction statutes SHOULD apply to the president. He also lays out a road map for Congress to hold the president accountable. This is another instance in which AG Barr lied about what.was actually in the report.

7. It is clear that AG Barr deliberately misled the country in an attempt to (a) softpedal the.report's conclusions (and assure Trump supporters that there's nothing to worry about here) and (b) to shape the narrative about the report in order to minimize its political damage to the president. We have an AG who acts like the President's personal attorney rather than the Attorney General of the United States.

8. If, after all this, we do nothing about this, it will be a sorry commentary on the politics of our times. History will not be kind to us. Nor should it.

I am sure many of my friends will disagree with my conclusions. That's OK. But I encourage you to at least read the Meuller Report. It is a worthy civic exercise.

Some of the same people who excoriated President Barack Obama for pulling the troops out of Iraq are now either silent or are applauding President Trump’s yanking our military out of Syria, immediately. Oh, and soon, out of Afghanistan.

Back then, Trump led the charge. Every opportunity, he blamed Obama for taking steps that were feckless and weak

You probably remember, Trump declared that Obama founded ISIS.

While many experts believe Trump’s action will only give ISIS, Hezbollah and the Taliban more incentive to stretch their legs in the suddenly developed vacuum, we have already seen a major casualty resulting from Trump’s decision.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis decided he could not stomach any more destruction to decades of foreign policy. He made sure in his letter of resignation that the world must know the president is unstable, at least in the world of alliances.

The Mad Dog Mattis take on the Madman Trump. It’s live, for the world to see.

The never-blame Trump supporters have defended the president on many fronts. I am sure you’ve heard them by now: “America must take care of its own; Those in the region need to be responsible; the Russians hate our pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan.”

What?

Yep. According to Donald Trump, Putin hates his decision.

As one would expect, the Secretary of propaganda, Mrs. Sarah Huckabee Sanders agrees. Sanders said today,

"The idea that Putin is happy about this is ridiculous," Sanders said when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reaction to the news that the U.S. will no longer have a presence in the war-torn country. "It puts them at a greater risk," she added, "so I think that's just silly."

Not everybody agrees. Perhaps one of the most shocking of those not defending Trump is Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends who said that Trump was doing the same thing Obama did.

Trump has fought back on twitter, stating:

There has never been a president who has been tougher (but fair) on China or Russia - Never, just look at the facts. The Fake News tries so hard to paint the opposite picture.

General Anthony Tata, author, “Dark Winter.” I think the President is making the exact right move in Syria. All the geniuses who are protesting the withdrawal of troops from Syria are the same geniuses who cooked the books on ISIS intelligence and gave rise to ISIS.”

So with the Mad Dog decorated and esteemed military man now in the barn, with real estate salesman who knows more than the generals manning the throttle, Trump is telling the world that ISIS and Russia never had it so bad as they have with him.

Putin and his folks back home in Moscow surely must be shaking out of fear.

Although, didn’t I read that Putin was pleased with Trump’s decision?

For confirmation purposes, this was reported today on the Daily Beast:

” To the contrary, the idea of an American withdrawal from Syria is being widely perceived in Russia as “a total dream come true” if it truly takes place.

State TV host Olga Skabeeva surmised that Americans are “losers, since Putin has defeated them in every way.” With a theatrical sigh, her co-host, Evgeny Popov, added: “Trump is ours again—what are you going to do?” Every member of the sizeable audience enthusiastically clapped. While these statements are decidedly sarcastic, Russian opinion makers recount the Kremlin’s victories with unmistakable glee. Popov smirked: “It seems to Americans that we won on every front: the U.S. Secretary of Defense has been removed, we unquestionably secured a complete, unconditional victory in Syria.” Skabeeva chimed in: “They’re also planning to leave Afghanistan.”

Popov pointed out: “On top of that, Rusal sanctions have been lifted with Trump’s hands.” Panelists of the show, including Russian lawmakers, couldn’t hide their satisfied grins. The reference was to the announcement that Trump’s Treasury Department intends to lift sanctions against the business empire of Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia’s most influential oligarchs, sanctioned for Russian interference in the U.S. elections.

Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt” just cornered the leader of the coven when Donald Trump’s former lawyer-fixer, Michael Cohen, flipped for a second time and blew the whistle on what he claims is his long-time benefactor’s financial lying and manipulation regarding Russia. Cohen’s Thursday revelations in a Manhattan federal court opened the door to further scrutiny of Trump purported commingling of personal and political affairs. If proven, Trump will be deprived of further ability to maintain that his organization had nothing to do with Russia, where official action serves to enhance private enterprise.

Assuming the truth of Cohen’s revelations, which are contested by Trump and his now personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, there was a long-standing relationship between the president and the original red state. Another Trump associate, Felix Sater, has claimed that Russian election meddling had a nexus to a proposed Trump tower in Moscow that included a fifty-million-dollar, in-kind, inducement to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

There has been no shortage of Damon Runyon-like characters in Trump’s orbit, going back to his earliest days in business. The notorious lawyer, Roy Cohen, who played a large part in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1950’s hearings into purported communist infiltration of Hollywood, was one of them. Cohen, who mentored Trump, is likely the source of his lifetime obsession with giving no quarter.

Most international real estate tycoons would salivate over the prospect of penetrating the Russian market. With oligarchs galore, who operate under the aegis of officialdom, the potential for enormous profits is tempting. Trump may have succumbed. His offspring, Don Jr. and Eric, have spoken lovingly about beaucoup Russian money flowing to the family enterprise.

Deutsche Bank, a prodigious Trump lender, has been under investigation that peaked this week when the bank’s headquarters were raided by German authorities who seized records they believe will reveal the extent of Deutsche’s alleged money laundering. Trump would’ve gone under without the bank’s help on more than one occasion.

Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, replaced himself as top official at the Bank of Cyprus with a former Deutsche Bank chairman when he left to head Commerce. Due to the bankruptcy of the 2nd largest Cypriot bank, (then headed by Ross), and forced merger with the Bank of Cyprus, Russian depositors wound up with huge shares of the newly combined financial institution that, effectively, controls Cyprus, a valued tax haven.

These issues will come into clearer focus if Mueller’s investigation links Russian endeavors to put a favorite sun behind the Resolute Desk with desires to further enhance that country’s favored citizens. Cohen’s revelations point the way. Trump, who lies easily, particularly about his business connections to Russia, may be close to getting tagged with an insufficient funds penalty.

Today, after the blockbuster news broke that Michael Cohen, the former attorney for Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about pursuing a Trump Tower deal is Moscow, as late as the summer of 2016, President Trump faced the media and slammed Cohen as a liar and someone just looking to get a reduced sentence.

That would be expected. Going on the attack is vintage Trump.

However, Trump also said that everybody knew about the Trump Tower building initiative in Moscow at that time, referring to, the summer of 2016 and prior.

Not sure whom everybody is, but, based upon my quick review of publications at that time, NOBODY, who should have known about the deal knew anything about it.

Nobody. Or, if somebody did, it surely was not public knowledge as Trump now wants us to believe.

Surely, at the time that Trump was being effusive with his flattery of Vladimir Putin in ways that made America eyeballs roll, the voting public was not told anything about the project.

What I recall vividly was Trump claiming over and over that he has no business ties with Russia.

He did not say, well, you know, “I do have this deal pending in Moscow”.

I think Marco Rubio and others would have loved to have known more about this at the time, don’t you?

Trump also said today that as a businessman, he had a right to do whatever he wanted to do.

True.

But being honest with the American people and fully disclosing your potential ties to our adversary would be something we as American voters have a right to know, too, don’t you think? Unless he was trying to cover this up as he did the revelations of two women who had prior affairs, information that he was concerned would be major news stories. Just ask Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

Here is a cursory review of articles at the very time that is now being discussed as being the time the deal ended—July 2016. The time reference is, Trump was being questioned about his Russian ties.

Inside Trump’s financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin

They said they first met Trump after hiring Miss Universe contestants for one of Emin’s music videos. Trump ultimately appeared in the video along with the beauty queens. After the video and the 2013 pageant, the Agalarovs said they developed a deeper relationship with Trump.

“I convinced my father it would be cool to have next to each other the Trump Tower and Agalarov Tower, and he was kind of into it at some point,” Emin Agalarov said.

The Trump Tower deal never moved past preliminary discussions. But Agalarov said the family is interested in a possible future venture.

He told reporters this week that he would “be looking at” whether to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and lift sanctions imposed when Russia invaded the Ukrainian region in 2014.

And he declined to call for Russia to stay out of the U.S. election. “I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?”

What has Trump said about his connections to Russia?

Trump has said he has no ties. At a news conference Wednesday, he said “I have nothing to do with Russia,” indicating he has never met Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. A day earlier, he tweeted “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.”

Q: Is it true that he has no investments in Russia?

We don’t really know. Trump has not released the financial documents that would shed light on the issue, particularly his tax returns. Breaking a tradition dating to Richard Nixon, he says he won’t make those documents public because he is being audited by the IRS.

Analysts suggest three primary motivations for the WikiLeaks email dump, quite probably overlapping: doing harm to the US political process to undermine its credibility; doing harm to Clinton (WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is no friend); and boosting Trump, who has heaped praise on Putin and last week broke from Republican policy by suggesting the US would not automatically come to the aid of Nato allies and saying he would consider recognising Crimea as Russian territory.

The land of the free and the home of the brave under Donald Trump has become a fearsome place for outsiders. When the first tear gas canister was fired towards refugees at the San Ysidro, CA, border crossing, the administration lost whatever remaining moral authority it had. The action could be construed unfavorably under the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified seventy years ago, in 1948, and the photos of barefoot children in diapers running from tear gas will accompany Trump’s history, forever.

Each American must ask themselves how far down the path to compliance they are willing to go to maintain Trump’s lifestyle of self-service, paranoia, antithetical tactics, and reckless willfulness. These predilections impede those traditional values which, historically, have made this country the envy of the world. Instead of strong, under Trump, we’ve become weak, rent by internal dissensions orchestrated from the oval office.

Trump was the publisher of the notion that rock-throwing justifies the use of deadly force, and proclaimed it loud and clear before the media. Americans weren’t the only ones who heard his words. The Nigerian Army cited them to justify the killing, according to Amnesty International, of forty rock-throwing protesters on Friday, 11/02/18. It wasn’t an isolated event. The Nigerian military killed 350 members of the same group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, in 2015. Their crime is that they’re vocal Shiites.

Some believe the San Ysidro incident was a smokescreen designed to distract from Trump’s other two major problems, Robert Mueller and Vladimir Putin. Trump is deranged about Mueller and is, no doubt, anxious about being schooled by a one-time KGB officer on geopolitics, and other topics of mutual, if not personal, interest. As a run-up to the meeting, Putin seized Ukraine vessels, by force, on specious territorial grounds. That’s probably O.K. with Trump, but he won’t gain anything but political scorn if he blesses the sea-jacking and, therefore, should catch a cold and bow out of the meet.

On Monday, 11/28/2018, Mueller filed an update in the case of The United States of America vs. Paul Manafort. It alleged that the defendant repeatedly lied to investigators after he agreed to cooperate. Genre buffs will recognize the old mob trick. The filing voided a reduced sentence plea deal contingent on cooperation. Manafort was never going to testify against Trump in open court, anyway, but it would’ve been good theatre. After he’s sentenced, the Southern District of New York can take its bite of the apple.

In other news, Trump was good enough to his foes to draw a rebuke from the Chief Justice, John Roberts, for attacking the courts. The stunt, however, merely insured Justice Kavanaugh has to vote against Trump in future cases. The New York Times reported on Trump’s failed plan to criminally prosecute Hillary Clinton and G-Man James Comey, banana republic style. About climate change, Trump did, finally, address climate change. He said, “something’s happening, but “it’ll probably reverse itself.” Tell that to the penguins.

They’re b-a-c-k, the Russians that is, messing around with the midterms, practicing for the big show in 2020. Social media is the target, again, of course, and to prove it’s doing something meaningful Facebook has set aside a broom closet with fewer people than it takes to run a shift at Starbucks to catch the trolls. That’ll work, and if you can’t trust Facebook who can you trust? Turns out, shock of shocks, it’s Vladimir Putin.

Vlad just announced that the United States’ time as world’s top dog is over; that we’re on the backside of the curve; that for us Mercury is in retrograde. He should know, he helped draw the map in which our moral authority in the world shrank to the size of Liechtenstein.

Latest example of Putin’s theory is the case of MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, aka “Bonesaw,” who is alleged to have orchestrated the killing and dismemberment of U.S. resident and Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. The administration can’t bring itself to criticize MBS as he deserves, however, because he’s a good customer for our stuff. It only took two weeks for the Saudis to admit the portly journalist is dead, after hand-to-hand combat with fifteen guys, though no reason was given for chopping him up.

Screaming, profane arguments between the national security advisor and the chief of staff are breaking out in the West Wing over whether migrants and asylum seekers are being treated badly enough at the southern border. Kid cages, apparently, haven’t done the trick and worse measures are in order. To deter the next migrant caravan, already on the way, the army may come. Try land mines.

The administration has started calling Democrats an angry mob. It might look at some of the activities it condones, like body-slamming reporters. Then, overseas, there’s Duarte in the Philippines, a swell who sends vigilantes out to murder drug users at night, presumably, with due process. It saves prison space. Russia is more civilized. People it doesn’t like get poisoned, or simply vanish without a trace. No need to investigate, either, when you already know who did it.

Thank God for Robert Mueller. He makes liberals hopeful that something, anything, can be done about Trump’s runaway train. Good luck on that. The president could emerge from the investigation unscathed, and the glacial speed at which Mueller works virtually guarantees no conclusions will be reached until after Trump’s 2nd term ends. Credit Putin, he pulled it off.

Before turning to the topic on everyone’s mind, the tweet that’s burning up the airwaves, the next person Donald Trump should fire is the misbegotten soul who failed to install portable air conditioners aimed at the president during his Saturday rally in Ohio. Trump said it was around 110 degrees in the smallish gym where he spoke and the heat ruined his new suit. The makeup artist who slathered meltable pancake on the president’s face, also, must go. Dislike Trump all you want, but he’s still president and should appear looking presidential, no matter how he acts, or what he says.

Following the Ohio visual debacle, Trump headed to Bedminster, NJ, for a working vacation. Work he did, producing a flurry of tweets. The strangest contained both an admission and a denial. The president admitted that the Trump Tower meeting with Russians prior to the election was, as previously acknowledged in Don’s emails, taken to get compromising information on Hillary Clinton. The denial was that he didn’t know anything about it in advance.

Trump has little regard for the truth, unless it’s how well the economy is doing, and it’s true that it’s on a tear. About Russia, however, he waffles all over the place, fibs, and was contradicted by Vladimir Putin, himself, who said he wanted Trump elected and told Russian agents to make it happen. Given all the evidence of Russian meddling in 2016, it seems incredulous that Trump was unaware of the controversial meeting taken by his son, Jr., son-in-law, Jared, and campaign manager Paul Manafort.

So, did Trump lie in his Sunday tweet? That’ll be a preoccupation of TV pundits until Donald starts another news conflagration, but the question is important for the president’s future since Robert Mueller is examining Trump’s tweets for state of mind evidence. No matter how much the president’s lawyers try to spin what he says, the law is clear that words should be construed in their ordinary sense, as in “would” means “would,” and “wouldn’t” means “wouldn’t.” Here, Trump just locked in a “didn’t.”

Maybe, the president is telling the truth, this time, that he didn’t know about the espionage driven meeting before the fact. Though that probability is remote, there still isn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump lied to cover his tracks, except for the potential testimony claiming otherwise that was teased by Michael Cohen, a man who has his own credibility issues.

A possible exculpatory defense might be that Trump suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and can therefore, be unaware of what’s happening around him at all times. The president admits that he thrives on chaos around him, likes discordant opinions, and is known, frequently, to act on the advice of the last person to talk to him. Trump is impulsive, distractible, easily frustrated, and irritable.

The people closest to the president know his tendencies, just as Huma Abedin knew Hillary Clinton was often confused when she woke up. Trump’s aides and family, therefore, might have tried to keep various types of information from him, especially if it didn’t pan out, as may’ve been the case at Don Jr.’s Bolshoi "meeting or unmeeting of the minds" ballet meeting at Trump Towers in 2015. What is true about THE TWEET, however, is that Trump tossed his Jr. under the tractor and that’s nowhere good to be.

Bayoubuzz Note: For decades, Russia has been considered our adversary. For decades, the FBI has been considered a strong bulwark against crime, corruption and foreign attacks against American interests.

During the past year, since the candidacy of now-President Donald Trump, the way some in the country view Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin and even the FBI has changed.

How does this revolution in political thought impact those who have been on the front line for the FBI? Recently, Craig Kramer, the founder of NewOrleansPodcasting discussed some of these issues with former Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigations James Bernazzani.

Bernazzani has been a very high-profiled figure in the New Orleans region which also has been a hot-bed of corruption. After a very active stint, helping to bring prosecutions of various elected officials to justice, he retired from the service.

I started NewOrleansPodcasting in January of 2006. My wish was to help people and businesses share positive stories about the New Orleans recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Eventually, my focus shifted to include general positive stories that were not related to Katrina, but were still centered around New Orleans. As years went by, I found that in addition to my enduring interest in my native city of New Orleans, I was becoming more and more passionate about issues on the national front. From time to time, I broke away from my local theme and did an interview about a national issue, as I just did with former FBI agent, James Bernazzani.

As my interest in national issues grew, I realized I had a decision to make. Should I start a second podcast focused on national issues or confine myself exclusively to local topics with NewOrleansPodcasting?

I decided that the solution was to start a second podcast site that focuses on such universal issues as National Security, Politics, Religion/Morality and Social Justice.

These podcasts would explore many of the "taboo" topics that people are cautioned to avoid talking about about with friends and family.

My goal is to encourage people to think beyond their comfort zones. I want to encourage people to recognize their biases and challenge themselves to extend their thinking to consider different points of view. Incidentally, I do not see "bias" automatically as a negative word. We all go through the day with our preconceived ideas; they help us survive. However, when our biases get in the way of critical thinking, those biases become chains that shackle us and hinder our growth and development.

I hope to launch the new nationally-focused podcast site next month, and I will also continue to explore local topics on NewOrleansPodcasting.com.

"What President Putin is doing right now is administering a very effective Active Measure. An Active Measure basically is a dirty trick used by the intelligence community. And the Active Measure is based upon mistruths and misrepresentation designed to fracture the societal community of the United States and it’s working.”

“Early on when you heard about, “Lock Hillary Up”, that was part of that Active Measure that was born by the Russians, sent to the appropriate political establishments who irrigated the fields for the Russians…”

"This is more brains over brawn as opposed to the old Cold War, brawn over brains. This is not bullets and bombs. This is information warfare. This is gigabytes and the Internet and we have to outsmart Putin and his cronies . . ."

“I think his (Putin) main objective, right now … while fracturing the American society…he’s going to fracture probably the strongest and most historically sound alliance...NATO".

“This is not an attack on Clinton, this is not an attack on Trump, this is an attack on the American democratic system. They (Russian Intelligence) targeted both the Democrats and Republicans to turn on themselves to do their work.”

"I’ll tell you right now. If you don’t understand the difference between politics and national security, you’re going to be Putin’s best customer. Pull yourself out of your Republican mindset, pull yourself out of the Democratic mindset, that independent mindset, and put yourself in the American mindset. We are all in this together. If we can’t extract ourselves from politics and understand this is a legitimate, black operation and attack on United States values, then Putin wins and we lose.”

Who is Maria Butina and why was she indicted by the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller? How was the NRA involved as cited in the indictment? Does this indictment relate to the alleged Russian collusion claims being made against team Trump?

Yesterday, I discussed these and many other issues with Grant Stern, a mortage broker and a very popular investigative writer who has a significant following on social media. He also is Editor-at-Large for Occupy Democrats, We discussed a variety of issues in the near-one hour Facebook/Twitter/YouTube Live interview.

Below are comments Stern made directly related to this issues above. Also below is the video of the entire interview involving Trump-Russia. The excerpt discussing Butina begins at the 36:19 mark on the video.

Referring to Russia and guns, Stern and others are claiming that guns was just an entry point into Republican mindset. He said, “the Russians don't like gun rights there. Gun rights are for people with badges, if you have a gun in Russia you're a member of the military intelligence or police” .... She linked up with Alexander Torshin and they petitioned the Russian legislature to expand gun rights....”

Stern said that he believes that this operation was approved by the top of the Russian government as “Putin approves everything”.

He believes the focus was upon the NRA and the Republicans as some commentators believe that organization has become a strong Republican base.

"So the very idea on its face that what the people were doing was legitimate, only struck people who are Republicans, because anybody who is a Democrat or knew anything about Russia, if you just knew even the first thing about Russia, you would have said this is nuts.

Was the focus about increasing guns in Russia or was there a more American-political motivation behind her actions?

Stern said, “Russia doesn't want more gun rights. In fact, I've seen the television interviews on Russian state-run TV where he's pressing the case for that and the broadcaster's so that's a crazy idea, if you can't get more guns to Russian people will all killing each other"

“If you're Russian and you're trying to attack America, wouldn't you do it by just trying to get more guns in more people's hands, well that's what they did". He feels that the purpose was "promoting extremism in America is exactly Russian's strategy, to attack our democracy because extremists tend to be very anti-democratic, on both sides are left and right"

"She was indicted for being a Russian spy, being a political agent for a foreign nation in America, without registering first with the Attorney General is a crime. And she conspired to do it with others, she's facing 15 years. What she did was she wormed her way into the NRA, right"

The role of a foreign agent is often to get information from the hosting country. Butina’s involvement appeared to go further. Stern said, "and this is a way of the Russians getting intelligence, but based on all of the things that I've read she didn't just gather intelligence, she was also directing money, resources. She was, she was providing something of value for the members of the NRA that they were using politically. And that's also it's illegal to accept anything of value in a federal campaign from a foreign person or foreign government. So you know, she could have registered as a foreign lobbyist, and then you know what would happened? Well the FBI would had known about had known about her"

"Somebody from the FBI might have listed the phone and called up the head of the NRA and said ‘do you know that you have a registered Russian agent moving around inside all the meeting?’. They might have said ‘mm-hmm this could be a problem’ so he didn't so that's why she's been arrested."

Stern sees a connection between Putin, Torshin, the NRA and the Republican Party. He said, “The NRA was a single largest pro-Trump group. I'm gonna publish the first chapter of my series-- the Grand Old Putin Party story-- so that our watchers and listeners can check that out too because it actually gets into that. I wrote about this, last year. I didn't, I don't think I really spotlighted Butina last year, because she was important, but she wasn't as important as like Torshin, for example, uh maybe I did.

"I just said even the NRA suddenly changed into a pro Putin party--"with love from Russia's fake NRA"

The writer said that one of the reasons that this indictment could be more far reaching is that the claim is that Putin approved of a pro-NRA plan using Butina so that Russian money could be sent to the NRA which would help out Republicans and possibly Trump and would help make the Trump administration and the GOP more Russia-friendly.

Stern believes the indictment “says it is that they had a back channel for communications to campaigns to candidates through the NRA. And why is that important? I mean have you noticed that everything that they're doing is to set up communications back channels?

The legal implications are "by the law outside expenditure groups are not allowed to coordinated with campaigns". He said, "so her mere presence as a communicator would have been a great assistance to violate federal campaign laws, which is to say—‘I'm going to talk to you, you talk to them. Except she was acting as the man in the middle so to speak for a Russian, for a foreign government.

Endangered species, who needs them? They’re lots of other animals. Threatened species are not endangered, yet, so what’s the fuss there? Both impede progress. Climate change, on the off chance it’s real, won’t wipe out entire populations on earth while we’re still alive, so don’t fret when carbon caps get lifted. The banks made honest mistakes in the past, which they’re unlikely to repeat, so everybody’s money is safe again, and deregulation is good there, too. The sick, about time, can stand on their own two feet instead of lounging about in government paid wheelchairs, obviating the need for universal health care. And, hats off to the generous Iowa hog and soybean farmers who are supporting the economy by going bankrupt. Best news of all, however, the Russians mean us no harm.

We’ve taken up residence in a theater of the absurd and, while entertaining, at some point president Donald Trump’s followers will have to answer the question, is the ticket worth the price?

Donald Trump has ushered in a woulda, coulda, shoulda era where yes means no, and vice-versa. The strangest thing is that the people enabling him, seemingly, could care less, nor will they, one suspects, till their tap water runs dark, grandma or grandpa takes a fall, or the spot inside a neighbor’s kid goes malignant and there’s no insurance; pensions get cut; employers leave for elsewhere to stave off the bite of tariffs; and, nobody, they’ll say, could have foreseen anything like this.

Consider, too, what’s hidden from view, the things no one is talking about, like the secret agreements Trump struck with Putin in Helsinki. It’d be presumptuous to speculate that the deal was akin to a division of the world between Russia and America, the way Spain and Portugal divvied the place up in 1494. That would be too provocative to think, but something was decided when Trump and Putin confabbed, privately, and no one, so far, knows what that might be, except for the Russians who’ve announced a desire for Trump to get on with it, whatever that may be.

The president might want to invite Putin to the military parade that’s scheduled for Washington, D.C. on Veterans’ Day, November 11. The Russians fought alongside the Allies in WWII, after they divorced the Axis, their first bride. Eastern Europe was their prize. Russian leaders no longer bang their shoes on U.N. desks the way Nikita Khrushchev once did. Putin is far smoother and can be very charming. He gave former secretary of state Rex Tillerson a friendship medal for good oil deals, is a sportsman who just hosted an exciting World Cup, and can be a hospitable person, so while we’re on good terms, thanks to Trump’s ministrations, welcome Comrade!